As a community that has had its brush with the bright lights and fame of Tinseltown (they used our name, if not our likeness, in the movie "New In Town"), it is a bit disturbing to see that Gov. Tim Pawlenty's 2010 budget recommendation sets the stage for eliminating the Minnesota Film and TV Board.

It costs the state $325,000 to keep the office open, and the state currently spends $1.225 million in subsidies in the "Snowbate" film production jobs program, which helps pay some of the expenses for films that are shot in Minnesota.

Pawlenty has proposed stripping the funding for the office from the budget in 2010, and cutting Snowbate funds from $1.225 million to $525,000.

At a time when everyone in government is talking about "jobs, jobs, jobs," the Minnesota Film and TV Board is one that produces jobs for those in the film industry. And there are a lot of people working in entertainment and film production in Minnesota. According the MFTV's web site, the Minnesota film and video industry includes 385 companies that employ about 4,000 people at an annual payroll of $76 million. Over the past three years, the Snowbate program, with $3.3 million in reimbursement payments, helped generate $42 million in direct and indirect economic spending.

Closing the state film board office would put Minnesota at a disadvantage in attracting companies to make films like "Grumpy Old Men" or "Fargo" or "A Serious Man." Almost every other state has a film board, and provides subsidies far greater than Minnesota does.

New Ulm would have benefitted greatly if "New In Town" had been shot here instead of Winnipeg, Canada. We have had movie producers travel through to check us out for other projects.

Now, it may be a long, long shot for New Ulm to be the location for some feature film, but you never know. If Minnesota takes itself out of the running, however, it will never happen here or anywhere else in the state.

Sounds like a "penny-wise, pound-foolish" budget proposal.